Posted on 09/17/2009 7:10:22 AM PDT by restornu
.Some time ago, I called needhim.org to discuss the Trinity and find out if I’m missing something or if Christians really just can’t count.
The lady who answered the phone, Donna, described the Trinity as “really cool”, and told me that the Father = God, the Son = God and the Holy Ghost = God. I was a little confused and tried to explain the biblical narrative in these terms.
The Holy Spirit (God) has sex with the Virgin Mary to impregnate her with Jesus (God). Later, Jesus (God) is sacrificed by the Father (God) to save us from… God?
I asked Donna if she thought this meant God was a masochist, and she said “no, it was more of a symbol”. Oh? So God didn’t really sacrifice himself to appease… himself? Why couldn’t he just forgive everyone for their sins without sacrificing himself?
Donna then said that the Trinity can be explained like this; in the same way that water can be found in three states (solid, liquid and gas), so can God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). I took this very literally and asked “So it’s fair to say that God is ice, Jesus is water and the Holy Spirit is vapour?” “Yes, you could say that”, she responded. After asking a few seemingly innocent and ignorant questions such as “So Jesus walked on Jesus?”, Donna got the impression that I’d taken what she said too literally.
Donna explained to me that the Trinity had three very distinct identities. So I asked her if that meant the sum of these parts was God, to which she responded that yes, the sum of these parts is equal to God, however the parts are also independently equal to God. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll just refer to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as God (after all, they’re not polytheists, right?). What Donna was saying is God = God, which I have no problem with, but she is also saying that God + God + God = God.
Yep, they just can’t count.
The call finished with Donna speaking a prayer which begun “God, thank you for being such an awesome God…”
Oh, this should be fun
The facets of a diamond are individual and unique... and all the same diamond. God has likewise made himself known in individual and unique persons that are all part of one and the same essential being.
The essence of God is not diluted in his persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit anymore than the essence of a diamond is diluted by looking at an individual facet.
And God did not die to save us from God. He died to allow us to be with him. God does not punish us, we punish ourselves by deciding to not accept his grace and forgiveness.
Mormon formula:
The Heavenly Father (one God) has sex with the Virgin Mary to impregnate her with Jesus (another God). Later, Jesus (another God) is sacrificed by the Heavenly Father (First God) to help men "progress eternally (becoming yet more Gods)....
....who can then create planets with their own Virgin Marys, who these new Gods can have sex with to start the process anew....
This is NOT Mormon it is mainline Christian has nothing to do with LDS
It is a Christian explain about their Trinity so it should be fun!
Ha Ha!
No you are mistaken the Chriistian believe that it was the Holy Spirit that impregnated Mary that is not LDS dcotrine!
Ha Ha!
Do you do this to be rude, expose your ignorance, or to denigrate others?
Just curious.
There is precious little in your post indicating that you are sincerely seeking understanding. There is much in your post indicating that you are picking a fight. What is the purpose of posting this?
"You're not supposed to understand it. It's a mystery."
Okay, I’ll make it simple . . .
People like having more than one god, so Catholics believe in three. It’s fun, there is a kind of freedom in it. But it is heretical to be a polytheist, so they call this belief in three gods “monotheism” which is a belief in one God. So basically, the Catholic belief in the Trinity is a way for polytheists to call themselves monotheists, and still be able to call everyone else heretical.
Other religions that have exactly the same Trinity, are indeed called heretical by the Catholics.
It’s sort of the grown up version of “up your nose with a rubber hose”.
To a liberal, the only sin is calling sin a sin.
That is demonstrably untrue, as can be seen by anyone who clicks on the link.
You don’t really believe that, do you?
If we knew the knowledge of God, that would make us an equal with God? Ain’t gonna happen ! However, we will all know God...he has promised in his word “all will be revealed”.
“You don’t really believe that, do you?”
Believe what?
Jesus Christ is Lord God of heaven and earth who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. His soul is the Father, His Divine Human, the Son and his action or proceeding, the Holy Spirit. He is infinite in His glorification. Conjunction with finite beings such as ourselves takes place via the Holy Spirit.
Proof? We are created in His image and likeness -- if you look in the mirror, so you see three? The three person trinity was created from the mindset of Christ as he was crucified on the cross.
These Three Persons are truly distinct one from another, but they are not three distinct Gods.
Christ is not the second God. He is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
The Holy Spirit is not the third God. He is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.
We mortals are used to there being one person per being: but the central being of Reality has three persons: three 'actors' if you will.
Sounds strange? It shouldn't do. One of the simplest, yet most provocative things we Christians say about God is that "God is Love".
Love is the unselfish giving of oneself to another: but how could God be Love unless God contained more than one 'self'?
So when we say "God is Love", we are at the same time affirming that "God is Trinity" - the love between God the Father and His Christ (the Second person of the Holy Trinity) is the Third person of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit.
God is not lonely. From all eternity, from before the creation of men and angels there has been a dance, a movement at the center of reality between the Persons of the Trinity. It is a dance of uncreated love that we cannot imagine, and yet we will be part of it for all eternity.
Sincerely hope this helps.
I don't know of a mainline Protestant denomination that DOESN'T believe in the Trinity. And they're not all heretics. Some hold heretical beliefs, but others are merely in schism.
Well, if you have a difficult time with unquantifiable abstractions, I’m sure you wont understand Taoist teachings either. Just because your mind habitually wraps everything into object entities does not mean that you know that real nature of them.
Ping to “resty explains the Trinity”...LOL!
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